As far as I’m aware, all Bundesliga clubs have returned to training following the brief Christmas break.
Some are also embarking on winter training camps in the potentially sunnier climes of Spain and Portugal, either side of their return to competitive action next weekend.
The German top flight is certainly a compelling place to be right now, hot on the heels of a record-breaking 2023 and an exciting second half of the campaign beckons.
The record-breaking has been led by the goalscorers, not least England captain Harry Kane whose 21 league goals for champions Bayern Munich means he has become the first player in Bundesliga history to reach that mark in his first 15 games, smashing the previous record set by Erling Haaland, who needed 22 matches.
Even when Bayern predecessor Robert Lewandowski scored a record 41 Bundesliga goals in 2020-21, the Pole was on 20 goals after 15 games.
With five assists included, Kane has been involved in 26 Bundesliga goals this season, as many as the player with the most goal involvements in the whole of last season, Randal Kolo Muani.
That is one of the reasons why Bayern are favourites with the SBOTOP Bundesliga betting odds to reclaim the crown.
Then there’s Serhou Guirassy of VfB Stuttgart, a club which needed a play-off win over Hamburg to avoid relegation at the end of last season.
Fast forward little more than six months and Sebastian Hoeneß’ men are sitting pretty in third, having already picked up more points (34) than they did in the whole of last season (33).
That charge has been spearheaded by Guinea international Guirassy whose 17 goals in 14 games places him second only to Kane in the scoring charts.
He did race to 13 goals by early October – scoring more in the first seven games of a season than any player in Bundesliga history. And it is also worth remembering that both Guirassy and Kane have already exceeded the total of 16 goals that earned Niclas Füllkrug and Christopher Nkunku the Torjägerkanone last season.
A word too for Lois Openda whose 11 goals in 16 league appearances for Leipzig is a good return and puts him well on course to beat the record set by the man he replaced, Christopher Nkunku, while Victor Boniface (10) and Deniz Undav (nine) all feature among the top-six, despite taking their Bundesliga bows as recently as August.
In the case of Boniface, he is playing for the leaders, a Bayer Leverkusen side who have won 13 and drawn three of their 16 matches in the first half of the campaign.
A multifaceted, attack-minded side, Leverkusen have never won the German title and, however the adventure ends, the side from North Rhine-Westphalia have given fans plenty of entertainment and Bundesliga highlights.
All this under impressive manager Xabi Alonso who, at the age of 42, is one of the most highly rated young head coaches in world football.
The former Liverpool and Real Madrid midfield star took over at Leverkusen in 2022 after cutting his coaching teeth with Real Madrid youth and Real Sociedad B team.
With so much excitement in so many areas, no wonder the German top flight boasts the highest attendance across Europe, with an average of 39,507 taking in games live at the stadium – more than in any of the other top-five leagues: Spain, England, France and Italy.
Bundesliga highlights will return on January 12 when Bayern host Hoffenheim to kick off a full weekend of fixtures, by which time there will be some new faces.
Two Manchester United men could lead the charge with loan moves to Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund respectively.
Donny van de Beek lit up Europe with his talent while at Ajax but has not settled during three years in England with United and a loan spell at Everton.
After sustaining a cruciate ligament injury 12 months ago, the 26 year-old ex-Netherlands youth international is now ready to shine again in the Bundesliga with Frankfurt.
Likewise, Jadon Sancho has only shown fleetingly what he can do since moving to England from Dortmund in the summer of 2021.
Since effectively calling his manager – someone who backed him when he needed it most last summer – a liar in early September and refusing to apologise, Sancho has been rightly ostracised by Erik ten Hag.
He thrived at Dortmund in the three seasons before his transfer to United and left after scoring 50 goals and providing 64 assists in 137 appearances.
If he can rediscover that form, his career could look brighter again – although his failure to apologise is damaging what should be some of the best footballing times of his life.
New faces, an exciting league and more records to aim for – what’s not to like in the Bundesliga for the neutrals right now!
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